Word: maastricht
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Germany's neighbors had been disturbed by the tide of violence, they could take some satisfaction in Bonn's expeditious treatment of the Maastricht treaty. The Bundestag ratified the pact on European union by an overwhelming 543-17. The upper house of parliament could approve the treaty as early as next week. (See related story on page...
...currency battle touched a sensitive nerve. Two-thirds of Britons generally favor participation in a unified Europe, but about the same number remain leery of losing national sovereignty and identity to some superstate, which they believe approval of the Maastricht treaty would bring. "Many people remain little Englanders at heart," says Robert Waller, research director of the Harris U.K. polling firm. But because the Prime Minister believes that a Britain outside the European Community would face untenable political and economic isolation, he is obstinately insisting on bringing a procedural vote on the treaty to the floor of Parliament...
...Wall came down and time ran out. The new Germany became preoccupied with the task of absorbing the east. Moreover, the new Germany grew too large to be swallowed by a federal Europe. The Maastricht treaty, the penultimate stop on the road to a federal Europe, was a last-ditch attempt to deny that reality...
Last month denial became impossible. Europe's exchange-rate mechanism exploded, and somewhere in the rubble lies Maastricht. What happened? The ERM tied E.C. currencies to the German mark. But much of Europe -- notably Britain and Italy -- was unable to keep up. The German central bank had jacked up interest rates to dampen the inflation caused by huge deficit spending on eastern Germany. The weaker E.C. countries had a choice: a) match Germany's high interest rates and risk both deep recession and political suicide; or b) drop out of the ERM. Not surprisingly, they chose...
France has had to threaten a major blowup in the E.C. to ward off CAP's immediate demise. In light of the Maastricht debacle and the Exchange Rate Mechanism fiasco, a war over the CAP might cause a complete E.C. meltdown. Then E.C. would come to stand for "Economic Crisis," and Europe would pull the rest of the world economy down with...